Advanced SEOfor Web DevelopersNathan BuggiaLead Program ManagerMicrosoft Corporationhttp://webmaster.live.com

Who is this guy

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Who is this guy

Robot stolen from http://SEOMoz.org, go check them out to really learn about SEO.

And they need it by when?!?

…and they need more tools, and data and technical info, and 302s…

Agenda

Why you should care about SEO

How a search engine works (the highlights)

SEO Best Practices

Site Review

Why should you care about SEO?

Search 43%

Direct 22%

Referring Sites 35%

Where page views come from

SEO = Organic results

6

Organic

Paid

SEO == Good design

Online Resources: www.aslistapart.org www.seomoz.org www.sitepoint.com

How A Search Engine Works

Crawling

Live Search Thinks….

• What does the REP say?

• Can I download this page?

• Can I process this page?

• What is this page about?

• What are all the links?

• How does this compare to past versions?

• How does this compare to related URLs?

• Does anything look abnormal? (title, h1, text, links)

• Maybe I’ll save a copy of all pieces of the page

Ranking

Page Rank Is….

• Base value of every page in our index

• Primarily based on quality and relevancy of inbound links

• AND quality of content on your page

• Computed for each URL

• Computed for each FQDN

• Computed periodically

High quality link

Low quality link

Link with penalty

Searching

Let me think….

• Is it spelled right?

• Do they want a navigational link, a

question answered, a video, some websites or

maybe an advertisement?

• What content can best fulfill their need?

• How should I order those results?

1. Building Pages

Use HTML semantically

<h1>My Article Title</h1>

<p>Scientists reported Wednesday…</p>

<span class=“heading1”>My Article Title</span>

<p>Scientists reported Wednesday…</p>

Proper use of common tags<a>

Anchor text really import, try to use something descriptive of the destination, not “more info” or “click here”

<h1>

Did you know there is only 1 per page? This signifies the most important topic on the page.

<title>

You must include a descriptive title. Use relevant keywords in front, and brand names on the end. (e.g. “My product name – Company Name”)

<meta>

Description tag is a must; make it short & sweet and unique to the page. You don’t need a keyword tag.

<frame>

If you use them other webdevs will mock you… are you prepared for that type of ridicule?

<table>

Generally used for displaying tabular data, should not formatting

JavaScript & CSS

Don’t lock navigation behind JavaScript

The old advicePut JavaScript at the bottom of the page or in *.js file, so it doesn’t block real content.Use CSS, and host externally (*.css)

The new adviceStill best practices for usability, but not required for search

Rich internet applications (RIAs)

Classification Example SEO Capabilities Best Used for

MonolithicApplication has 1 URL for the world to see, and is a black box beyond that. Like hosting a rich application online.

Entry point indexed

• Email• Configuration/ Admin Tools

LinkableApplication is a black box, but there are multiple URL entry-points for collaboration.

Full site indexed • Metrics/ reporting• Document Editors

CrawlableApplication is a small black box meant to spice up a content rich page.

Full site indexed and well ranked

• E-commerce• Content Sites• Gadget/ Widget

RIA strategy guide

http://mail.live.com

http://finance.yahoo.com

http://giffy.com

Tips & tricks

Watch out for ASP.Net post-backs, engines cannot crawl those URLs

XHTML compliance in ASP.NetWhitepaper

XHTML Compatibility Pack

How to optimize Silverlight for search

Questions?

Site review….

Query term: mix08Desired URL: http://visitmix.com/2008

Are there any problems?

Summary of Issues

Google Yahoo Live Search

Ranking Good Bad Bad

Title Okay Okay Okay

Description Bad Bad Bad

URL Good Bad Bad

One more clue…

Was #1 result on all engines a couple months ago.

Ranking on all engines has improved considerable in past 2 weeks.

2. URLs and Linking

http://store3.com/product.aspx?id=MB147L&SessionId=2344&RegionCode=en-US&format=rich&cat=3

http://store2.com/Microsoft_Zune_80_G2_Black/dp/B000J01IPI

http://store1.com/Microsoft-Zune-80-G2-Black/dp/B000JO1IPI/

Classing up your URLs

• store1.com• microsoft• 80• zune

• G2• dp• b00j01ipi

• store2.com• Microsoft_Zune_80_G2_Black• dp• b00j01ipi

• store3.com• product.aspx• id=MB147L• SessionId=2344

• RegionCode=en-US• format=rich• cat=3

HTTP Status Codes

200 OK

W3 standard for HTTP Status Codes

301 Moved Permanently

302 Moved Temporarily

304 Not Modified

404 Gone

Canonicalization What’s the difference?

www.visitmix.com

visitmix.com

visitmix.com/default.aspx

Detailed article on the issue from Matt Cutts

Recommendation

Choose one option and stick with it

301 to your preferred option

Canonicalization in Action

Tips & tricks

URL Rewriting in ASP.Net

Implementation whitepaperWork around for 404 error pages

Implementing Redirects in ASP.Net

Implementing Redirects in IIS

ASP.Net URL session state management

301 Redirects in ASP.Net

<script>

protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e) {    Response.Status = "301 Moved Permanently" ;    Response.AddHeader("Location", "http://mysite.com/new-URL"); }

</script>

Include in any *.aspx file… (you don’t need a code behind file)

Canonicalization in ASP.Net

protected void Application_BeginRequest(Object sender, EventArgs e) {

if (HttpContext.Current.Request.Url.ToString().ToLower().Contains(     "http://www.mysite.com")) {     HttpContext.Current.Response.Status = "301 Moved Permanently";     HttpContext.Current.Response.AddHeader("Location",         Request.Url.ToString().ToLower().Replace(             "http://www.mysite.com",             "http://mysite.com")); }

}

Create in your Global.asax file….

More information and examples: http://search.live.com/results.aspx?q=301+redirect+asp.net

301 Redirects in IIS

Click here for a whitepaper

Questions?

3. Advanced Topics

35

Unique Titles & Descriptions

36

Use the language of your customers (in addition to your own branding)

37

Generate content landing pages

amazon.com/books-used-books-textbooks/b/ref=sd_al

amazon.com/b/ref=amb_link_5269162_50/105-46793

amazon.com/Streetwise-Paris-Michael-Brown/dp/0935039252

Geographically Relevant Sites

Recommendations:• Use regional domains when possible (.co.uk, .jp. .cn …)• Use a sub-domain, domain, or folder solution if possible (don’t use params or cookies)• Proper encoding of languages on a page• Host the server in the geography of the region you’re targeting

39

Generate sitemaps & ping on updates

40

Link baiting can work well

Questions?

Tools of the TradeOn-page Optimization

Internet Explorer and…FiddlerDeveloper Toolbar

Firefox and…Firebug, YSlowLive HTTP HeadersSearch StatusDeveloper Toolbar and Flashblock

Web-based HTTP ViewerWebmaster Tools (Rank, Penalties, HTTP Compression)

LinksYahoo Site Explorer

Keyword ResearchadCenter Excel Add-in

Webmaster Center

demo

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